16 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



as to expect them implicitly to follow them under all circum- 

 stances (Hear, hear). If they began at practice without theory, 

 they would all find, ultimately, that they had be«uu at the 

 wront? end. Tliere was one view of this question which he had 

 not heard that eveniuK. The matter had been discussed as if 

 the farmers drained all the land of the country ; whereas, in 

 fact, a great deal of draining was done by the owners of land. 

 If, indeed, a farmer had plenty of capital, there was no reason 

 why he should not avail himself of it, under proper conditions, 

 to effect the drainage of his land; but they all kuew very well 

 that, as regarded the country generally, landlords were called 

 upon to aid with their money in drainage operations as well as 

 in providing proper buildings on the farms (Hear, hear). This 

 was not, therefore, solely a farmer's question ; hut he believed 

 that landlords in general were open to conviction, and that if 

 the work of drainage were slow, it would also be sure. He 

 congratulated the club on the intelligence which had been 

 displayed that evening in regard to drainage, and considered 

 the tone of the discussion an indication that the club would 

 continue to be— what it deserved to be— the leading agricul- 

 tural club of ;the kingdom (Hear, hear). There was one point 

 on which he wished to correct what appeared to him a mis- 

 apprehension. One or two gentlemen had talked of the sub- 

 soil as if there were everywhere a sheet of lead just below the 

 surface, which it was very difficult to break through. He did 

 uot know how far the observation of others agreed with his 

 own ; but he must say he never saw, in his life, a field with a 

 uniform subsoil (Hear, hear). He never saw a field where the 

 subsoil did not vary in depth and quality. As regarded the 

 different systems of drainage, he would uot pretend to say 

 which system was best. He did not think the shallow system 

 was the best, and he did not know that the deep one was the 

 best (laughter) ; but iu regard to that point he would 

 simply observe that anyone who was acquainted with the 

 science of geology would unite with him in declaring that a 

 subsoil was not the uniform sort of thing that some appeared 

 to imagine. 



Mr. Marshall (of Kiaeholme) said, so far as his oivn ex- 

 perience enabled him to speak, he thought the ordinary drain- 

 age of land, where no great geological difficulties presented 

 themselves, a very plain, common-sense ^course of proceeding. 

 To lay the drains down the line of greatest descent ; 

 to put them in at a minimum depth of four feet, 

 at a distance, varying according to the nature of 

 the subsoil, of seven to ten yards apart, would in all the cases 

 he had met with be found equal to any emergency. He had 

 reason to feel greatly obliged to Mr. Bailey Denton for his 

 assistance and advice in most of the draining he had carried 

 out ; and in confirmation of his (Mr. Marshall's) belief in deep 

 drainage, he had within the last two years taken up and other- 

 wise obliterated the entire drains upon two hundred acres of 

 land which he had lately become posseised of, which had been 

 put iu up the furrows at a maximum depth of two feet six 

 inches, at a distance of five yards apart, but which had proved 

 utterly worthless as a means of drainage. He had since 

 re-drained the whole at a minimum depth of four feet, nine 

 yavds apart, down the direct fall, across ridge and furrow, and 

 without reference to high-backed lands or other irregulari- 

 ties of any kind ; and he had good reason to be perfectly satis- 

 fied with what he had done. And he felt no hesitation iu re- 

 commending the same system to others, where a like descrip- 

 tion of soil presents itself. By a moderately strong jointy 

 clay, intermixed with very small sand-beds and an occasional 

 thiu stratum of stone, varying in depth from one to three feet, 

 and with no water to contend with hut surface water, this land 

 — from having been a wet, ungenial clay, requiring three and 

 four horses to plough it— is now a dry strong loam, most satis- 

 factorily ploughed by two horses, and producing as fine crops 

 of turnips as can be seen anywhere, and without any diffi- 

 culty whatever in ordinary seasons as to eating them upon the 

 land. He would add that he had known others in his own im- 

 mediate neighbourhood who had taken up miles of shallow 

 drains, and replaced them by deep ones ; but he never yet 

 heard of any one who had ever taken up a deep drain and re- 

 placed it by a shallow one. His draining cost 658. per 

 acre, besides the pipes-say about 18,000, If inch, at ISs. 

 per thousand. 



The Chairman said, after the very long discussion which 

 had taken place, he would not trouble them with many ob- 

 servations. He must, however, make one remark in confirma- 

 tion of the opinion expressed by Mr. Stokes, with respect to 



the apparent injury sustained by grass-lands from draining 

 He quite agreed with that gentleman that the injury was more 

 apparent than real (Hear, hear). Of course, when grass-lands 

 had been drained, a certain amount of coarse herbage would 

 disappear, in consequence of the removal of the water. But 

 they must wait patiently till better and more nourishing 

 grasses took their place. That that operation would be as- 

 sisted by a good coat of dung there could be no question 

 (Hear, hear), but that Nature herself would perform the 

 work, if they only had patience, was equally clear. He had 

 seen this result in the cases of grass-lands which had been 

 drained by himself and others. With respect to the depth of 

 drains, he thought there could be no positive and invariable 

 rule ; but every person should, before he began to drain, try 

 to find out where the water was, and then make his drain of 

 the requisite depth (Hear, hear). His own opinion, however, 

 was decidedly in favour of deep drains ; and he believed that 

 where errors had been committed they had been more on the 

 side of shallow drains than of deep ones (Hear, hear_j. He 

 would now call upon Mr. Nesbit to reply. 



Mr. Nesbit said he had very little to say in reply to the 

 observations which had fallen from the various speakers. He 

 must confess that he had expected to meet with much more 

 opposition than he had done ; though all he contemplated 

 doing, in his cpening address, was to state a few scientific 

 facts and principles relative to the nature of the soil. He an- 

 ticipated that he would be overwhelmed by the shallow- 

 drainers, but the principal attack had come from the deep- 

 drainers. He took neither one side of the question nor the 

 other; but he must say that he could hardly conceive any 

 person, who considered how great was the variety of soils to be 

 drained, maintaining that any one ui'iform depth would answer 

 best universally. If there were any such person, he was cer- 

 tainly much stronger in self-will than he (Mr. Nesbit) was' 

 Mr. Baker made a remark with respect to the nature of the 

 experiments presented, which indicated that he scarcely un- 

 derstood their object. In the different specimens of soil which 

 he had exhibited, his design ^s to represent, in a few seconds, 

 what would probably take place on their farms in several days. 

 He was very much astonished that Mr. Bailey Denton appeared 

 never to have heard that a shallow drain would sometimes 

 run before a deep one. He had a work of Mr. Denton's in his 

 hand, which he had carefully studied, and which contained a re- 

 ference to Lord Wharncliffe'a system of drainage. It was stated 

 that Lord Wharncliffe having drained four feet deep, and this 

 not having been found to answer, he then put shallow between 

 deep drains, and that did answer. Again, the following is an ex- 

 tract from a letter of Lord Fortescue to his son in reference to the 

 same point : — " I may here mention that the people on our two 

 farms say that they constantly find the two-feet drains dry 

 after continuous dry weather ; but that after heavy rains they 

 seem to discharge much more water, iu proportion to their 

 length, than the four-feet drains, which seem to be compara- 

 tively little influenced by change of weather." All this was 

 taken from Mr. Denton's own book, and he might cite other 

 passages to the same effect. The only other observations 

 which he wished to make had reference to the amount of rain- 

 fall. That must, of course, have a distinct influence on the 

 depth and distances of drains. 



Mr. Nesbit then exhibited a rain-gauge of very simple 

 character, and explained to the meeting the manner in which 

 it might be used, adding that the cost of such a useful instru- 

 ment was only 12s. 6d. Thej' could be obtained from Mr. 

 Casella, of Hatton Garden. 



On the motion of the Rev. Mr. James, seconded by Mr. 

 Thomas, of Bletsoe, the following resolution was unanimously 

 adopted — 



" That in draining land, no depths of the drains can com- 

 pensate for too great width of the intervals — that porous soils 

 should be drained at depths and intervals suitable to their re- 

 spective characters — but that retentive clays require drains at 

 more moderate depths and distances." 



Mr. Nesbit moved a vote of thanks to the chairman, ob- 

 serving that they had never had a better chairman since the 

 club was established (cheers). 



The motion was seconded by Mr. Ramsay, and carried by 

 acclamation. 



On the motion of Mr. Payne, seconded by Mr. Bullock 

 Webster, a vote of thanks was given to Mr. Nesbit for his able 

 introductory lecture ; and with this terminated the proceedings 

 of the evening. 



